Public Enemy

This Day in Music History — December 11

1957 : In what remains one of the most shocking celebrity scandals, Jerry Lee Lewis marries 13-year-old Myra Gale Brown, who was the daughter of his cousin (and bass player), J.W. Brown. The marriage lasts 14 years but seriously damages Lewis’ career.

1964 : Sam Cooke is killed at age 33 when the manager of the Hacienda Motel in Los Angeles (where rooms cost $3 a night) shoots him three times. The manager claims that Cooke assaulted her and that he tried to rape his companion. The incident was ruled a justifiable homicide.

2012 : It is announced that Public Enemy is the fourth hip-hop act overall to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (the others that preceded PE into the Hall were Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, Run-DMC, and the Beastie Boys). Other 2013 inductees were Rush, Heart, Albert King, Donna Summer, and Randy Newman.

2012 : Sitar maestro Ravi Shankar dies during surgery for a heart valve replacement in San Diego, California, at age 92. He was survived by two daughters, Norah Jones and Anoushka Shankar. His son, musician Shubhendra Shankar, died in 1992.

This Day in Music History — October 6

1927 : The Jazz Singer , a musical starring Al Jolson and the first talking picture, is released.

1990 : Soundgarden, Iggy Pop, Ice T, The Cramps, Joan Baez and Public Enemy are among the artists to perform at Shoreline Amphitheatre in California, as part of A Gathering of Tribes, which is organised by The Cult’s Ian Astbury. This festival is the reported inspiration behind Lollapalooza, which launches a year later, in 1991.

1991 : Michael Jackson gives Elizabeth Taylor away to Larry Fortensky during her eighth wedding, held at Jackson’s 2,700-acre Neverland estate near Los Angeles.

2002 : Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones donates 100,000 pounds to the school he once attended in Dartford, England, for musical instruments and a band director. The resultant musical center is named after the singer.